Directions: I-76 West to Exit 21. Take Route 272 (North Reading Road) north for 3 miles (pass Renniger's). At light, turn left onto Route 897. Go 14 miles to Kleinfeltersville. Make first left after stop sign and go 2 miles to visitor's center entrance.

Hours: Visitor's center open February through the day before Thanksgiving, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Self-guided driving tours from March through mid-September. Hiking trails open year-round, dawn to dusk. Call to confirm hours, 717-733-1512.

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It was an unforgettable sight — full of constant action and noisy commotion. The crowds gathered around the arena, many standing on edge in anticipation of the famous winter event.

The weather was freezing cold outside, but the fans didn't mind. They knew this super festival happens in March and came prepared.

The early morning sun cast light upon the stadium, revealing a packed arena. The all-star lineup of teams grew in number as the cardinals, falcons and ravens entered the stadium, but when the eagles arrived — that's when it all happened.

The instinctive reaction of a single player from the opposing team detonated an explosion of deafening noise, erupting in a tsunami-like wave of white. It was a magical moment of unforgotten magnitude. The roadside fans were awestruck and mesmerized by the thunderous cloud of white as it slowly lifted up from the stadium.

The intense clamor, brightness and uncountable undulations created an illusion of slow motion. The human mind could not absorb what was seen and heard.

Suddenly, one of the eagles intercepted a passing fish from the lake and alighted on a wooden goal post with its prize.

The tidal wave in the sky was composed of nearly 100,000 snow geese and tundra swans that then peacefully subsided and settled back into the arena. The intense volume at last toned down.

We have just witnessed the magic of Middle Creek.

Nestled deep within farming country in southeastern Pennsylvania, Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area is along the border of Lebanon and Lancaster counties a few miles south of Kleinfeltersville. Within this heart of rural Pennsylvania lies the stadium of life, a 400-acre lake surrounded by 5,000 acres of wildlife habitat owned and managed by the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area is a place where tens of thousands of snow geese, tundra swans and other species of waterfowl take refuge in late winter during their northward migration. Based upon the incredible numbers of wintering waterfowl, the Pennsylvania Game Commission states that "Middle Creek in 2010 was designated as a Globally Significant Important Bird Area, because it hosts annually a large percentage of the continent's population of snow geese and tundra swans and provides critically important migratory stopover habitat."

That's pretty impressive, to say the least. Also impressive is the story behind the creation of Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area.

According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, Middle Creek was an experimental idea that would create a waterfowl refuge used to manage and propagate resident Canada geese. The agency supported its vision with $5 million in financial backing from Project 70 — a $70 million bond issued to state and local governments to develop community recreation and conservation programs and funding from the federal Land and Water Conservation Act.

The game commission had to acquire tracts of farmland to create what they would transform into large impounded bodies of water, ponds, wetlands and wildlife habitat. In 1966, several ponds were dug and an 80-acre Canada goose holding pen was built along Hopeland Road, in front of what would become the visitor's center. The agency wanted to establish a resident Canada goose population as soon as possible, so it imported 15 pairs from the Pymatuning Reservoir in Crawford County.

According to the commission, construction of the visitor's center "began in 1971 and was completed the following year. It officially opened in 1973. ... The one-story rustic center was designed to educate students and help visitors better understand wild birds and wildlife management."

A visit to Middle Creek 40 years ago wouldn't provide the impressive sights and sounds it does today. It's truly amazing that several decades later, Middle Creek has developed into an incredible wildlife management area.

The manifestation of the renowned refuge was certainly a surprise to the agency and wildlife biologists. The agency states, "Middle Creek's improving habitat and growing population of resident Canada geese helped lure Atlantic Flyway transients to its waters. With each passing year, more and more wild ducks began to utilize Middle Creek, especially during spring and fall migrations.

"Migrant tundra swans turned up on the area for the first time in early 1976, when a dozen stopped over. Snow geese began appearing by the dozens, then hundreds about the same time. Snow geese slowly seemed to be adjusting their route north to include Middle Creek. From the late '70s to the early '90s, snows would descend on Middle Creek in numbers ranging from a couple hundred to 1,500. Then, in 1995, their numbers were estimated at 50,000. The next year, they doubled to 100,000. In 1997, an estimated 150,000 sojourned there. Since then, the best years for snow geese have been punctuated by gatherings of 170,000 or more.

"Tundra swans, however, didn't take a back seat to snow geese. Their numbers also increased annually. Tundra swans at Middle Creek number 14,000 to 15,000 in good years and 5,000 or less in off years," stated the agency.

I have made many late-winter trips to Middle Creek to witness the unforgettable display and sheer magnitude of the snow geese, tundra swans and waterfowl that congregate on the refuge. The experience is surreal, as if I were in the Serengeti or the Arctic tundra.

Middle Creek is a celebration of noise and commotion, the miracle of migration, a tournament of wonder, a magical place. It's March Madness at its finest.

Contact Rick Koval at pocononaturalist@yahoo.com or write to him at PO Box 454, Dallas, PA 18612.